‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller
You would be hard pressed not to have heard of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, or not to have heard that title used to describe a situation from which one is unable to remove oneself. While its appeal might not be as immediately obvious as that of other now-classic novels published around the same time - Kerouac’s On the Road, Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, and Updike's Rabbit, Run to name a few - Joseph Heller’s first and most famous novel is every bit as colourful, both linguistically and in terms of content. First published in 1961 to wildly divergent reviews, Catch-22 is, by definition, a war novel. Yet it is also considered one of the funniest novels ever written - think Blackadder Goes Forth as opposed to Band of Brothers and you should have a rough idea of the book’s surreal, occasionally satirical tone. Catch-22 is populated by all kinds of weird and wonderful folk, and at the centre of it all is bumbling everyman Captain Yossarian, the ‘Assyrian’ bombardier with an unending list of missions to fly and an equally long list of ways to get out of flying them. As the novel’s hero (or anti-hero perhaps) Yossarian is at once likeable and entirely without pity, a juxtaposition that has led to his becoming one of the most memorable protagonists in twentieth-century fiction.
As Malcolm Bradbury explains in his introduction to this Everyman’s Library edition of the novel, 'Catch-22 is essentially the Air Force rule that says the only way to get out of combat duty is to be certified insane. But since anyone who wants to escape combat duty cannot possibly be really crazy, since “a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind,” there is no way to get out of combat duty.' It is this rule, a 'bureaucratic absurdity’ as Bradbury so aptly terms it, that defines the work as a whole. As Bradbury explains further, ’[Catch-22] ends as a metaphysical representation of the human condition, a philosophical conundrum about the kind of world we live in.’ Indeed, this kind of ideology is present on every one of Catch-22’s 561 pages, even the ones where slapstick humour and light-hearted frippery prevail. The oddly cyclical and inescapable nature of Catch-22 itself is reflected in Heller’s deliberately repetitious prose; often the same exchange will be repeated several times within a certain sequence, and if you are anything like me you will be completely confused as to whether you’ve accidentally read the same sentence twice or if this repetition is all Joseph Heller’s.
In terms of style, Catch-22 is predominantly dialogue-heavy. More often than not the character-centric chapters (almost all of which are named for the person/persons on whom they focus: Clevinger, Havermeyer, Doc Daneeka, etc.) open with a general description of that person or the circumstances they are in, before evolving into an always amusing exchange between one or more of the novel’s dazzling array of eccentrics. Being that its chapters are on the short side for a novel of its length, Catch-22 is not, unlike many war novels, terribly taxing to read. Furthermore, in spite of some of the more unsavoury subject matter explored, the novel flits along at a lively, energetic pace and is genuinely difficult to set aside.
Overall I rather enjoyed Catch-22. It is one of those bona fide American classics that has been on my hypothetical 'must read’ list, along with so many others, for quite some time now. The novel’s irreverent spirit reminded me of Hunter S. Thompson’s work, while the surreal, journey-through-hell vibe made me think of the aforementioned Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. Catch-22 has never been without its share of detractors, however, and it is by no means a perfect or immaculately crafted novel, yet it is most certainly an original one - richly detailed, subversive, and bitterly, outrageously funny.
This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in June 2012.